There are two companies that support the BD-5 series of planes. One of them, BD Micro, sells three versions of the plane.

BD-5B - powered by a Hirth 2706 2-cycle engine. The kit, minus engine, instruments, and radios, is about $19,000.

BD-5J - powered by a TRS-18 jet engine, sells for about $34,000 minus engine, instruments, and radios.

BD-5T powered by a 95 horsepower Quantum turboprop engine. Of the three, I like this one the best. The kit, including engine, sells for about $44,000.

There were several versions of the BD-5 promoted by Jim Bede back in the 1970s. He sold a lot of kits but very few of them ever flew. Many of the ones that did fly subsequently crashed. The new kits are improved over the original design and seem to have a pretty good record.

Bede designs some futuristic planes but has the reputation as aviation's snake oil salesman. He has a pretty dismal record.

BD-1: small two-place plane that became the AA-1 Yankee production plane. Fun plane but with the glide ratio of a crowbar.

BD-2: attempt at a round-the-world unrefueled plane. It set a distance record of over 12,000 miles that stood for many years.

BD-4: 2-4 seat high wing design, it was perhaps the first true kit airplane. It's probably Bede's most successful design. It's still in production.

BD-5 series:
- BD-5A: short wing (12 foot span) version considered very hard to fly. Not many were ever built. Powered by a 2 stroke engine. The original design featured fiberglass construction and a V tail but that didn't work out.

- BD-5B: longer wingspan version originally powered by various 2 stroke snowmobile engines. The problem was that the engines back in the 1970s just weren't very good. They're a lot better now. Some builders have put other engines in the BD-5B, including Honda car engines.

- BD-5D: proposed production version. Thousands of people put down $400 deposits. None of them ever got a plane.

- BD-5G: Glider version. Only 1-2 were ever built. BD-5G was also the designation of a BD-5 powered by a 70 HP Xenoah engine.

- BD-5J: jet version, quite a few were sold, mostly to airshow performers. Appeared in a James Bond movie.

- BD-5T: current turboprop kit.

BD-6: looks like a single seat BD-4.

BD-7: proof of concept 4 place plane.

BD-8: single seat aerobatic plane. Looks like only one was ever built.

BD-9: some kind of enclosed ultralight. Not much info available.

BD-10 (scroll down): supposed to be a 2 seat supersonic jet kit. Several were built, only one is still flying.

BD-12 (scroll down): looked like a 2-seat side-by-side BD-5. Only flew once.

BD-14 (scroll down): 4-seat version of the BD-12. I don't think it ever flew.

BD-17: Bede's current plane.